Let's Talk About Elisabeth

and a little artificial intelligence...

Hey,

By now, you’ve probably heard about ChatGPT. I’ve played with it some. Just small experiments - one of which is trying to incorporate it into my Amazon advertising campaign. I don’t have enough data yet to judge if it’s successful, but time will tell. If nothing else, I’ve had fun. 

One of the other features OpenAI has is to generate photos using a text description. I wondered what it might make if I fed it ideas about Thurman Manor…

Here’s what AI thinks Thurman Manor might look like:

Thurman Manor as imagined by DALL-E

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You know the drill. 

Spoilers ahead for All That Is Common To Man:

Let’s start here:

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭16‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Pride is arguably the worst of the seven deadly sins. Here’s what C. S. Lewis has to say regarding the matter:

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison. It was through pride that the Devil became the Devil: Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.

It’s clear early in the story that Elisabeth thinks very little of Nathan, if she thinks anything of him at all. She’s set up as the antagonist, a force opposing him at every step. She undermines him, and gaslights him whenever possible. Elisabeth is concerned about her reputation while considering the people who have those opinions beneath her. She is so set on preserving what she believes is rightfully hers that she is willing to sacrifice her daughter. 

Simply put, pride destroys. It blinds us to ourselves. Maybe not all at once - most things have a process. Elisabeth didn’t turn evil all at once. It’s a gradual change. We barely notice while it’s happening. At one point, Elisabeth seems to be a hopeful mother to be, excited to be shopping for her new baby. But as time goes on, her attitudes change. Her pride blinds her, and she ends up in a place she never intended to go. That expectant mother transforms into something vile and nasty, ultimately despising the very baby she was once so excited for. 

As the proverb says, pride goes before a fall, and Elisabeth meets her grisly end in such a fashion.  

Hiram